Snow fences are commonly used in the Northern part of the United States to control the spread of snow. They are usually put up in the Fall of the year in farmers' fields parallel to a road to be protected in order to prevent blowing snow from passing from such field to the road; and they are usually taken down in the Spring of the year.
These snow fences are difficult to put up, and to take down and store. Thus, as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,914,270 of Parker et al., ". . . the labor of several persons is normally required inasmuch as the spool of wire is normally elongated heavy and bulky . . . The operation is tedious slow and extremely inefficient."
In the process of taking down and storing a snow fence, the fence is normally removed from the fence posts and laid flat on the ground; and thereafter it is rolled up in a circular mass.
The device of U.S. Pat. No. 2,914,270 is adapted to unwind a roll of fence when such fence is disposed vertically on a shaft. Even if such device could be modified to wind up a fence, it is not adapted to rotate a shaft which is disposed horizontally and substantially parallel to snow fencing laid flat on the ground. Thus, the device of this patent is not suitable for winding up snow fencing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,029,819 of Kane describes a manually operated device for unwinding fencing material which is comprised of a crank 26, a shaft, and a chamber to which an end of the snow fence may be attached. The device of the Kane patent may only be operated when disposed vertically, and thus it is not suitable for rolling up fencing laying on the ground. Furthermore, no means is provided for removing a roll of the rolled up fence contained with the Kane device.
None of the prior art of which applicant is aware provides a motorized means for rolling up fence disposed on the ground.
None of the prior art of which applicant is aware provides a means for removing a roll of rolled-up fencing from a fencing winding device.
It is an object of this invention to provide a motorized apparatus for winding up fence material which is laying on the ground.
It is another object of this invention to provide an apparatus for winding up fence material which is comprised of a shaft/drum assembly rotating at a substantially constant rate.
It is another object of this invention to provide an apparatus for winding up fence material which is comprised of a collapsible drum.
It is another object of this invention to provide an apparatus for winding up fence material which allows the ready removal of the rolled up fence material from the drum.